Thank God Berger

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Berger as SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS (1944)

Gottlob Christian Berger (born July 16, 1896 in Gerstetten , † January 5, 1975 in Stuttgart ) was head of the SS main office , SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS in the National Socialist German Reich . After the end of the war, Berger was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the Wilhelmstrasse trial , but released early in 1951.

Military career and NSDAP membership

The son of the sawmill owner Johannes Berger completed the teacher training college in Nürtingen from 1910 to 1914 after attending elementary and secondary school . When the First World War broke out , Berger volunteered , was deployed on the Western Front and seriously wounded during the Battle of Ypres in October 1914. Most recently an orderly officer , Berger had reached the rank of lieutenant at the end of the war and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross . He was demobilized on January 31, 1919 .

In civil life, Berger was temporarily a seminar teacher in Lichtenstern ; from 1920 to 1928 he was a teacher in his native Gerstetten. In addition, he attended an academy for gymnastics and sports teachers in Tübingen in 1920 and 1921 . From 1928 to 1933 he worked as a teacher at an elementary school in Wankheim near Tübingen. In 1921 Berger married; the marriage resulted in four children.

Early political activity

Information on Berger's early political activities is based mainly on his own information and can only partially be independently verified. As of March 1919, Berger joined various volunteer corps to. By March 1921 he was platoon leader of Einwohnerwehr of Heilbronn ; in September 1920 he guarded the local power station in order to prevent occupation by striking workers. After the Kapp Putsch , Berger is said to have participated in battles against the Red Ruhr Army in March and April 1920 as a member of the Württemberg volunteer formations, including at the water tower on Steeler Berg in Essen. In April 1921 he moved to the "Grenzschutz West", a paramilitary organization that belonged to the Black Reichswehr . “Organization F”, to which Berger belonged from April 1924 to April 1929, is to be assigned to these formations, which the Reichswehr sponsored contrary to the provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty . Until November 1928 he led the group “Alb-Ost” of “Organization F”; then he commanded the Württemberg-Center troop command of the same organization.

Berger first joined the NSDAP in 1922 or 1923 . In spring 1923 he was involved in founding the local NSDAP group in his home town of Gerstetten. In September 1923 he took part in a meeting of military associations in Nuremberg . In October and November 1923 Berger led the "National Socialist Battalion Ulm / Land". He was temporarily arrested in October 1923 in Gerstetten for possession of weapons, the formation of armed groups and for presumptuousness. With the ban on the NSDAP after the Hitler-Ludendorff putsch , Berger's party membership ended for the time being.

Berger officially joined the NSDAP ( membership number 426.875) again on January 1, 1931. Before that, on November 15, 1930, he had become a member of the SA . Berger led the Tübingen SA storm until August 1, 1931; from July 29, 1932 he was responsible for the SA sub-group Württemberg . In this function he was promoted to SA Oberführer on October 15, 1932.

After the "seizure of power" in Württemberg

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Berger was an honorary special commissioner of the highest SA leadership in the Württemberg Ministry of the Interior in March and April 1933 . In this function he was responsible for the establishment of an auxiliary police force and for the imposition of “ protective custody ”, a competence which formally fell within the responsibility of the Interior Minister. Based on his experience in paramilitary associations and his training as a sports teacher, he also gave numerous lectures on pre-military youth education. In April or June 1933 Berger had to give up all offices in the SA after arbitration and resigned from the organization. Berger temporarily sat in the Württemberg state parliament as the successor to a KPD member who had "left" because of the ban on his party , before the state parliament was dissolved in October 1933. On October 30, 1933, he turned to the Württemberg Gauleiter, President and Reich Governor Wilhelm Murr with the request to become rector of a boys' school in Esslingen am Neckar . Berger headed this school until September 30, 1935 and then moved to the Württemberg Ministry of Culture as a consultant for the physical education of young people. Between September 1934 and January 1936, Berger also held regional functions in the organization "Chief of Training", an organization that, under the direction of Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger , was supposed to improve paramilitary training in the NSDAP.

Berger's work in Württemberg was accompanied by numerous internal party conflicts. In particular, his relationship with Gauleiter Wilhelm Murr was marked by intense rivalry; from Berger's point of view, Murr was incompetent and uneducated. The background to his resignation from the SA were personal arguments with younger SA leaders like Hanns Ludin ; There were no political reasons. Ludin characterized him as follows:

“At first impression, Berger is an extraordinarily captivating personality, his heart is on his tongue. He knows how to tie up comrades and subordinates, but often with methods that I don't approve of. When Berger z. B. said ›give me 10 determined men and I'll make the revolution in Württemberg‹, that sounds colossal and makes a strong impression on primitive men. But there is nothing behind it. "

Career in the SS

Head of the supplementary office

On January 30, 1936, Berger joined the SS with the rank of SS-Oberführer (SS No. 275.991). Berger was initially assigned to the SS upper section "Southwest" as a sports officer. At the same time, between April 1936 and June 1938, he was head of the Württemberg State Gymnastics Institute in Stuttgart, where he was appointed director of studies and consultant for physical education in the Reich Ministry of Education in Berlin . On October 1, 1937, Berger joined the staff of the Reichsführer-SS, Himmler, as a leader . In his civil service positions, he was mostly on leave for service in the SS, and in the spring of 1939 he left the Württemberg Ministry of Culture for good. Berger's center of life moved to Berlin without breaking off his contacts with Württemberg.

On July 1, 1938, Himmler appointed Berger head of the newly created supplementary office (Office VIII) in the SS main office , a month later Berger also took over the management of the registration office (Office VI) and the office for physical exercise (Office X). As head of the supplementary office, Berger was responsible for recruiting for the armed SS units, the SS available troops and the SS skull and crossbones units, the latter being responsible for guarding the concentration camps . In 1938, Hitler had strengthened the position of the armed SS units in relation to the Wehrmacht . With Berger's participation, Himmler had concluded two agreements with the Reich Youth Leadership , as a result of which 32,000 recruits - mostly from the Hitler Youth - came to the armed SS units.

During the “Anschluss” of Austria , Berger was part of the advance command under Himmler, which arrived in Vienna on March 12, 1938. During the Sudeten crisis in September and October 1938, Berger became Himmler's liaison officer to the leader of the Sudeten Germans, Konrad Henlein and the Sudeten German Freikorps . As a liaison officer, he was responsible for the arming of the Freikorps and was responsible for selecting Sudeten Germans as members of the SS or the available troops. After the German invasion of Poland , on September 26, 1939, Himmler commissioned Berger to set up the ethnic German self-protection . These units, formed from members of the German minority in Poland under the leadership of the SS, were involved in the murder or expulsion of thousands of Polish citizens.

Head of the SS main office

Promoted to SS Brigadefuhrer on April 20, 1939 , Berger replaced August Heissmeyer as head of the SS main office on April 1, 1940 . Berger reorganized the main office and replaced Heißmeyer's employees. Berger's main field of activity was the recruiting of volunteers for the Waffen-SS, which has now been established . To do this, he resorted to ethnic Germans , for example from Romania, who were recruited in transit camps of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle . On the Berger standing "Germanic control center", conducted by Franz Riedweg , also were foreign volunteers for the Waffen-SS advertised. Initially, the advertising was limited to countries that were "Germanic" from the National Socialist point of view; in the further course of the Second World War these restrictions fell. Berger himself admitted that the recruitment was only “partially voluntary” and “recruited somewhat violently in the labor camps” . Berger's attempts to recruit in Finland in 1941 led to anger of the local government and a dispute with the German Foreign Office.

Based on the recruitment of foreign volunteers for the Waffen-SS, Berger increasingly occupied himself with "European ideas": In Berger's ideas, the foreign volunteers formed the foundation on which a "Germanic Empire" was to be built. In a Europe in which all opposition was eliminated by military means, the Germanic countries were to unite under German leadership without giving up their own "nationality" and their own culture. Berger took over the chairmanship of the German-Croatian Society and headed the German-Flemish Study Society (DEFLAG), an organization of Flemish separatists that collaborated with the German occupation forces. In Denmark, Berger tried to play off the leader of the SS Freikorps "Danmark" against the party leader of the Danish National Socialists, Frits Clausen .

As head of the SS main office, Berger was in contact with Mohammed Amin al-Husseini , known as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who had lived in Berlin since 1941. On September 11, 1943, Himmler wrote to Berger on the matter of " Koran passages that are supposed to refer to the Führer". In the course of the collaboration between the National Socialists and Islamists around al-Husseini, relevant leaflets were printed in Arabic, with quotations from the Koran at the beginning and end; but it was controversial whether or not one should really call Hitler the expected messiah. Jeffrey Herf viewed the documents in the Federal Archives; a large number of RSHA people were involved in the discussion. Berger was part of this Islam connection; that also explains his trip to Egypt after 1945, because quite a few people were sitting here, especially Johann von Leers .

From March 1940 Berger played a major role in setting up a "poaching squad" under the leadership of Oskar Dirlewanger , from which the SS special unit Dirlewanger developed. Dirlewanger came from Württemberg and served in the same unit with Berger in the First World War. In 1937 Dirlewanger was sentenced to two years in prison for fornication with a minor; at Berger's instigation, he was released early. In April 1940 Berger campaigned for Dirlewanger to join the Waffen SS. Dirlewanger's unit was used in particular in the " fight against gangs " in Belarus, in which numerous civilians were murdered. The "fight against gangs" was accompanied by mass rape and other excesses, the victims were often underage women and children. The Berger, who traveled from Berlin especially for this purpose, was partly involved in this. It was also Berger who protected Dirlewanger from criticism - also within the SS. A letter from Dirlewanger to the adjutant Gottlob Bergers from March 1944 documents a payment of two bottles of schnapps per woman for a total of ten female forced laborers , which Dirlewanger “procured” for the SS main office. During the Soviet offensive in the summer of 1944 , Berger Himmler offered to “take care of order” at the head of the Dirlewanger regiment, which Himmler refused.

In the second half of 1944, Berger developed plans to standardize recruitment in the German Reich: Himmler was to be subordinate to a "military registration office" that was centrally responsible for recruiting for the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, police, Reich Labor Service , Organization Todt and the civilian labor sector. As the war ended, the plans remained fictional.

Relationship with Himmler

Berger managed to establish contact with Himmler soon after joining the SS. In the clashes of leading National Socialists he behaved as "a loyal follower of Himmler" , advised the Reichsführer of the SS in a "mixture of Byzantinism , peasant cunning and openness" and thus achieved a position of trust with Himmler. In October 1943, Berger spoke to Himmler about the domestic political situation and the role of Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels :

“Reich Minister Goebbels believes that he has the people in his hands. He thinks he is a fakir whose whistles and calls make the viper and the spectacled serpent dance. Now the German people are not a snake in glasses, they are much too cumbersome for that, have too little poison and Dr. Goebbels is not a fakir. In my opinion, we have a tremendous responsibility here to ensure that the war is always presented as a war for the Reich, never as a war for the Führer, the NSDAP and the SS. "

The correspondence between Berger and Himmler that has survived includes a letter from Berger from April 1944, in which he came to the following assessment by the East Prussian Gauleiter and Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine, Erich Koch :

“At times the meeting took on such ugly and unobjective forms that I was deeply ashamed. Koch himself makes - I try, Reichsführer, to judge very objectively and above things - the impression of a drunkard in the last stage. He has a sallow, blue-white complexion with many wrinkles and furrows that are irregularly distributed all over his face. He is not capable of an orderly conduct of negotiations, because he flares up with every order and acknowledges it with insults. "

Berger was informed about the extent of the Holocaust while listening to Himmler's speech in Poznan on October 4, 1943, in which Himmler openly expressed the role of the SS in the “extermination of the Jewish people”. Already earlier, on July 28, 1942, Himmler had spoken out in writing to Berger against the issuing of a regulation on the term “Jew”: “With all these foolish determinations, we tie our own hands. The occupied eastern territories become free of Jews. The Fuhrer placed the execution of this very difficult order on my shoulders. Nobody can relieve me of responsibility anyway. So I forbid myself to have a say in anything. "

East Ministry and end of the war

From April 1, 1943, Berger worked as Himmler's liaison in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories under Alfred Rosenberg . As early as January 1943, Himmler and Rosenberg had discussed problems between the SS and the East Ministry; disputes with the Reich Commissioners Erich Koch ( Ukraine ) and Hinrich Lohse ( Ostland ) also played a role. At the same time, Himmler and Berger wanted to penetrate Rosenberg's sphere of influence and find it easier to recruit recruits from the Waffen SS, especially in Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia . A temporary appointment Berger as State Secretary in the Ministry of the East did not materialize. Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski , Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Central Russia and responsible for “fighting gangs” there, hoped in April 1943 that Berger's position in the East Ministry would improve the armament of his units and hoped that Berger would “use his influence in the direction of a smoother Ostpolitik. "

Berger, promoted to SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS on April 20, 1941 and to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS on June 21, 1943, was in charge of SS Mail Protection from March 1942 . Among other things, this was responsible for the repatriation of the wounded and sick from the combat areas. On August 5, 1943, Berger received a mandate in the meaningless Reichstag , which no longer met after 1942.

Berger had a special relationship with the small village of Bergersdorf in Moravia. The place belonging to the Iglauer Sprachinsel and populated by Germans was considered a model agricultural village. Berger took the village under his personal sponsorship and gave the place the title SS village in 1943 .

Berger was one of those responsible for the hay campaign in the summer of 1944 . Ten to fifteen year old children from Eastern Europe were abducted to Germany to be used as forced laborers . On August 31, 1944, two days after the outbreak of the Slovak national uprising, Berger was sent to Slovakia as HSSPF "Slovakia" to suppress the uprising. From September 6, 1944 in the post of "German Commander in Slovakia", he was directly subordinate to Adolf Hitler and Keitel . Berger brought together German units such as the Tatra Division , units of the SS Post Guard and the Dirlewanger Special Command ; collaborating Slovak groups such as the Hlinka Guard were also deployed. In the wake of the units, Adolf Eichmann and Josef Witiska went in search of Jews. Because of his success in Slovakia, Berger was in high favor with Hitler. On September 19, Berger was replaced in Slovakia by SS-Obergruppenführer Hermann Höfle .

At the end of September 1944, Berger was appointed by Himmler as staff leader of the newly built German Volkssturm ; On October 1, 1944, Hitler also gave him responsibility for prisoners of war and internees as “General Inspector for Prisoners of War”. In this role, Berger was aware of the insufficient supply of prisoners of war. On February 20, 1945 he reported to Himmler about the establishment of work details from American prisoners of war. Berger's approach was described by Himmler's staff as "very problematic" ; Berger was asked that "really only real voluntary reports" are taken into account.

“With a probability bordering on certainty,” Berger spoke out on behalf of Albrecht Fischer , a senior employee of Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart , who was arrested after the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 . After a successful coup d'état, Fischer was designated as a representative for the Stuttgart military district . Berger took action at the request of the Bosch “operations manager”, Hans Walz ; possibly Berger approached Himmler or the President of the People's Court, Roland Freisler . Berger's own statement after the end of the war, that he contacted Hitler directly, cannot be proven and is considered unlikely. In the process before the People's Court, Albrecht Fischer was treated cautiously, even according to his own perception. Berger had already been associated with Robert Bosch GmbH: Berger's father had been a soldier together with the company's founder Robert Bosch , and Berger had already campaigned for the Stuttgart company on several occasions. These connections, the ongoing rivalry with the Württemberg Gauleiter Murr and personal provision for the time after the foreseeable end of the National Socialist regime are considered possible motives for Berger. In addition, Berger was unlikely to have known the extent of the connections between leading Bosch associates and the July 20 conspirators.

At the end of the war, on April 17, 1945, Berger was a member of a tribunal that sentenced Karl Brandt to death in Goebbels' private apartment under his chairmanship . Brandt, Hitler's former attendant doctor and most recently Reich Commissioner for Sanitary and Health Care, had been accused of defeatism . Brandt's death sentence was not carried out until the end of the war.

Berger last met Hitler on April 22, 1945 in the Führerbunker . Before that, Berger had been appointed "military representative of the Führer" for Bavaria. On the night of April 23, Berger flew from Berlin to southern Germany. In Bavaria he was responsible for prominent prisoners of war who had been pulled together as hostages. Most recently, Berger fled to Robert Bosch's hunting ground in the Tannheimer Tal . According to contradicting information, he was captured there or in Berchtesgaden by a French commando on May 8, 1945.

After the end of the war

Defendant in the Wilhelmstrasse trial

Gottlob Berger as a defendant in the Wilhelmstrasse Trial (1949)

Between June and August 1945, Berger was held in the London Cage of the British secret service ; after his return to Germany he was mainly imprisoned in Nuremberg and Dachau. The files found after the end of the war incriminated Berger and led to the decision of the responsible American authorities to indict him in one of the follow-up trials of the Nuremberg war crimes trial. Berger was one of the twelve defendants in the eleventh follow -up trial , also known as the " Wilhelmstrasse Trial ", as many of the accused had belonged to the Foreign Office. Berger was often questioned before and during the trial; Berger's assertions that he only found out about the murder of European Jews after 1945 turned out to be untrustworthy in view of the documents found; The former Reichsamtsleiter in the East Ministry, Georg Leibbrandt, who was heard as a witness, also contradicted the trial . Berger was also made responsible for the brochure " Der Untermensch ", which was created in the SS main office he was head of and which presented Slavs as "spiritually, emotionally [...] lower than any animal" .

On April 13, 1949, Berger was found guilty of counts III ( war crimes ), V ( crimes against humanity ), VII ( forced labor ) and VIII (membership in a criminal organization) and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In the judgment, Berger was held responsible for the death of the prisoner-of-war French general Gustave Mesny , who was murdered on January 19, 1945 on Hitler's orders. The crimes against humanity included Berger's responsibility for Dirlewanger and its unity, the persecution, enslavement and murder of Hungarian Jews in 1944, and the forced conscription of foreigners to the Waffen-SS. In the case of forced labor , the court referred to Berger's responsibility for the hay campaign ; the conviction as a member of a criminal organization was due to Berger's SS membership.

On January 31, 1951, the American High Commissioner John J. McCloy reduced the sentence to 10 years after Berger's petition for clemency. McCloy decided over 89 requests for clemency that day. Against the background of the Cold War and the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into the West , there was widespread criticism in the German public of the Nuremberg judgments, which was followed by individual voices in the USA. In particular, the lack of opportunity to review the judgments was criticized. In his reasoning, McCloy referred to Berger's responsibility for many things that were illegal and inhuman during the National Socialist era and to Berger's close relationship with Himmler. In the case of the murdered General Mesny, McCloy did not see Berger's responsibility due to unclear channels of command. He also credited the detainee with the fact that he had at least temporarily campaigned for the interests of prisoners.

Taking into account a penalty of ten days per month of imprisonment for good conduct, Berger was released from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison on December 15, 1951 .

After release from prison

Even before his release from prison, Robert Bosch GmbH tried to help Berger with denazification . The company's private secretariat turned to a potential witness on November 27, 1951:

“Of course, Herr Berger also has to be denazified. We have prepared the procedure for him in the French zone of Württemberg, where it is significantly easier than in the US zone. Mr Berger also has to submit a large number of declarations of discharge . Would you be willing to give him such a testimony? If I remember correctly, you also made an affidavit for him in the Wilhelmstrasse trial . It would be sufficient if you formulated the declaration for denazification in a similar sense. "

Until April 1952, Berger was registered with the police in Himmelpforten near Stade in Lower Saxony. Here he handed in his denazification questionnaire on February 27, 1952, to which he added further exonerating material on March 21. According to the law on the conclusion of denazification in the state of Lower Saxony of December 18, 1951, all pending proceedings were discontinued on March 30, 1952 and those affected were automatically classified in Category V ("unencumbered").

The occupation authorities had confiscated Berger's property. Through the agency of Bosch, Berger worked as a building and machine manager for a newspaper in Stuttgart in which Bosch was involved. In May 1953 Berger resigned from the newspaper: he did not succeed in classifying himself into the subordinate position; He also carried out Nazi propaganda among colleagues. In July 1953 he found employment in a curtain rail factory in Musberg in the Böblingen district.

After his release from prison, Berger was under surveillance by American intelligence services. An instruction dated December 27, 1951 identified it as a potential security risk and regular observation was deemed necessary. Berger's mail was checked, and from January 1956 there is a report by an agent to whom Berger had given information about his political views: According to the report, Berger was an ardent German nationalist who compared the Federal Republic with the Weimar Republic. Against the background of the procedure to ban the KPD , Berger took the view that the communists were treated too laxly and had too much freedom of movement. The KPD should be eliminated immediately, so Berger. His trip to Egypt in June 1954 aroused particular suspicion on the part of the American authorities . Berger's friend Oskar Dirlewanger was suspected there; It was not clarified until 1960 that Dirlewanger had died shortly after the end of the war in 1945.

In 1953, Berger published an article on the "expansion of the Waffen-SS" in the right-wing extremist monthly Nation Europa . Figures in this publication were found to be just as inaccurate as an affidavit of Berger from March 1953, in which he ascribed the authorship of a 1945 forged letter to the Swedish mediator Folke Bernadotte . In September 1964, Berger testified as a witness in the criminal trial against Karl Wolff . Around the same time, Robert Bosch GmbH commissioned him to write down his memoirs for a fee. This resulted in tape recordings. The Stuttgart company provided Berger with further financial aid and legal support, so that Berger managed to get a pension for his time as a teacher before 1933. After his retirement at the end of December 1964, Berger spent the evening of his life in his home town of Gerstetten.

See also

literature

  • Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , p. 33 ff.
  • Gerhard Rempel: Gottlob Berger - "A Swabian General of Action" , In: Ronald Smelser , Enrico Syring (Hrsg.): The SS: Elite under the skull. 30 résumés. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2000, ISBN 3-506-78562-1 , pp. 45-59.
  • Joachim Scholtyseck : The "Swabian Duke" Gottlob Berger, SS-Obergruppenführer , In: Michael Kißener , Joachim Scholtyseck (Hrsg.): The leaders of the province: Nazi biographies from Baden and Württemberg. (= Karlsruhe Contributions to the History of National Socialism , Volume 2) Universitätsverlag, Konstanz 1997, ISBN 3-87940-566-2 , pp. 77–110.
  • Alfred Hoffmann: The “boundless urge to play a role”: Gottlob Berger. In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Täter. Helper. Fellow travelers. Nazi victims from the Eastern Alb. Klemm & Oelschläger, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-86281-008-6 , pp. 21–51.
  • Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 55 .
  • Knut Stang: Knight, Landsknecht, Legionnaire. Military-mythical models in the ideology of the SS. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-58022-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical information on Berger in Rempel, Berger , passim; Scholtyseck, Swabian Duke , passim; Hoffmann, Drang , passim, and Joachim Lilla u. a. (Editor): extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2004, p. 33ff.
  2. ↑ Hoffmann, Drang , p. 23.
  3. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 79f, times given by Lilla, extras , p. 33.
  4. ↑ For the date of joining see http://motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber26z3.html phis-dead link | date = 2018-04 | archivebot = 2018-04-12 19:28:34 InternetArchiveBot | url = http : //motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber26z3.html}} Leader questionnaire of the Supreme SA leadership from October 20, 1932 , in facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (link no longer available, August 4, 2012). See also Lilla, extras , p. 33.
  5. ↑ a b c Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 81.
  6. ↑ Lilla, extras , p. 33.
  7. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 81f. See also: Berger's letter to Heinrich Himmler dated September 8, 1941. In: Helmut Heiber (Ed.): Reichsführer! Letters to and from Himmler. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1970, Document 86.
  8. ↑ Letter Ludins to the SA leadership special court-Munich , December 7, 1934, quoted in: Hoffmann, urge , S. 49f.
  9. ^ State Archives Ludwigsburg , inventory E 203 I Bü 1997.
  10. ↑ For the meaning of the supplementary office, see Rempel: Berger , p. 49.
  11. ↑ Hoffmann, Drang , p. 30.
  12. ↑ http://motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber39z3.html straight-line | date = 2018-04 | archivebot = 2018-04-12 19:28:34 InternetArchiveBot | url = http: / /motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber39z3.html}} Letter from Himmler dated September 26, 1939 in the facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (link no longer available, August 4, 2012).
  13. ↑ Date in Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 77.
  14. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 87f; Rempel, Berger , p. 48f.
  15. ↑ Berger's interrogation on March 4, 1947, quoted in Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 88.
  16. ↑ http://motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber88z3.html straight-dead link | date = 2018-04 | archivebot = 2018-04-12 19:28:34 InternetArchiveBot | url = http: / /motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber88z3.html}} '' Letter from Berger to Himmler from October 10, 1943, '' in the facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (link no longer available, August 4, 2012).
  17. ↑ George Stein, Peter Krosby: The Finnish volunteer battalion of the Waffen SS. A study on SS diplomacy and the foreign volunteer movement. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 4/1966, pp. 413–453. (PDF file, 6.3 MB)
  18. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 86f; Heinz Höhne: The order under the skull. The history of the SS. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1992, ISBN 3-89350-549-0 , p. 463.
  19. ↑ Höhne, Orden , p. 399.See also: Werner Heyde : http://motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber99z3.html phis-dead link | date = 2018-04 | archivebot = 2018-04 -12 19:28:34 InternetArchiveBot | url = http: //motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber99z3.html}} Report on the SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Clausen from March 30th until 5.4. Journey through Denmark , in facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (link no longer available, August 4, 2012).
  20. ↑ Berger and al-Husseini are also otherwise considered close partners: Pieter Sjoerd van Koningsveld: The Training of Imams by the Third Reich. Cape. 12, p. 333ff from Online ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , also available as a book University of Leiden UP 2008 ISBN 978-90-8728-025-3 , here p. 335 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dare.uva.nl
  21. ↑ Herf, Nazi propaganda for the Arab world, Yale UP, New Haven 2009, p. 200ff and note 14
  22. ↑ For the relationship between Berger and Dirlewanger see: Knut Stang: Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger - protagonist of terror warfare. In: Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Gerhard Paul (historian) Ed .: Careers of violence. National Socialist perpetrator biographies. WBG , Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-16654-X , p. 69, again: 2005, again: WBG and Primus, Darmstadt 2011; Rempel, Berger , p. 46.
  23. ↑ Referring to post-war statements (including Nuremberg Document NO-867): Stang, Dirlewanger , p. 71.
  24. ↑ Stang, Dirlewanger , pp. 70f.
  25. ↑ Dirlewanger's letter to Berger's adjutant Blessau dated March 11, 1944, see Stang, Dirlewanger , p. 71. The letter and Blessau's answer printed by Rolf Michaelis : Das SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger. Use in Belarus 1941–1944. 2nd, revised edition, Michaelis, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-930849-38-3 , p. 111.
  26. ↑ Hoffmann, Drang , p. 35.
  27. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 96; Rempel, Berger , p. 51.
  28. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 83f.
  29. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 90.
  30. ↑ Höhne, Orden , p. 420.
  31. ↑ http://motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber87z3.html phis-dead link | date = 2018-04 | archivebot = 2018-04-12 19:28:34 InternetArchiveBot | url = http: / /motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber87z3.html}} Letter from Bergers to Himmler dated October 10, 1943 , in facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. See also Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 93f. (Link no longer available, August 4, 2012)
  32. ^ Berger's letter to Himmler dated April 22, 1944 , quoted in Heiber, Reichsführer , Document 308. Numerous other Berger letters are documented in Heiber.
  33. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 92f.
  34. ^ Letter from Himmler to Berger dated July 28, 1942 , quoted in Scholyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 92.
  35. ↑ Scholyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 89f; Rempel, Berger , p. 52.
  36. ↑ Memorandum from the Reich Security Main Office of April 14, 1943, quoted in Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 93.
  37. ↑ Rempel, Berger , p. 52.
  38. ↑ Gerhard Köpernik : Geschichtliches Unikum - How an SS man adopted an entire village. In: one day . Spiegel Online , May 24, 2008, accessed September 17, 2013 .
  39. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 91.
  40. ↑ Rempel, Berger , p. 54; Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 95.
  41. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 98f.
  42. ↑ Referring to Berger's post-war statements: Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 95f.
  43. ↑ a b http://motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber122z3.html phis-dead link | date = 2018-04 | archivebot = 2018-04-12 19:28:34 InternetArchiveBot | url = http : //motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber122z3.html}} Letter from Berger to Himmler dated February 20, 1945 , in facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center; http://motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber123z3.html straight-line | date = 2018-04 | archivebot = 2018-04-12 19:28:34 InternetArchiveBot | url = http: // motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com/instdoc/d10c04/ber123z3.html}} Memorandum from March 9, 1945 , in facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (links no longer available, August 4, 2012).
  44. ↑ This evaluation in Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 101. On the Bosch company and July 20, 1944 ibid, p. 96ff. See also Rempel, Berger , p. 46f.
  45. ↑ Fischer's biography at the German Resistance Memorial Center
  46. ↑ Detailed description of the reasons in Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 99f.
  47. ↑ Referring to Fischer's memories: Schmoltyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 97.
  48. ↑ On Berger's motives and state of knowledge: Rempel, Berger , p. 47; Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 97, 101.
  49. ↑ Winfried Suss: The "people's body" in war. Health policy, health conditions and the murder of the sick in National Socialist Germany 1933–1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56719-5 , p. 177.
  50. ↑ On the end of the war see Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 103f. Ibid p. 104 on the place of arrest.
  51. ↑ Information on the periods of detention in Lilla, extras , p. 34.
  52. ^ Rainer Blasius: Case 11: The Wilhelmstrasse Trial against the Foreign Office and other ministries. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (Hrsg.): National Socialism in front of a court. The allied trials of war criminals and soldiers 1943–1952. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13589-3 , pp. 187-198.
  53. ↑ On Berger's interrogations: Schmoltyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 93, 101, 105f.
  54. ↑ quoted from Höhne, Orden , p. 465.
  55. ↑ For the judgment, see Hoffmann, Drang pp. 39–43.
  56. ↑ On the circumstances of the reduction in sentences see Thomas Alan Schwarz: The pardon of German war criminals. John J. McCloy and the Landsberg inmates. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . 38 (1990), p. 375ff. (PDF file, 7.3 MB).
  57. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , pp. 106f.
  58. ^ Letter from the archive of Robert Bosch GmbH, quoted in Scholtyseck, p. 107.
  59. ↑ Hoffmann, Drang , p. 44.
  60. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 108.
  61. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 107
  62. ↑ Excerpts from the report in Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 109
  63. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 108.
  64. ↑ Gerald Fleming: The Origin of the "Bernadotte Letter" to Himmler, March 10, 1945. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 4/1978, pp. 571–600. (PDF file, 8.4 MB) Here p. 576ff. and p. 597.
  65. ↑ Scholtyseck, Schwabenherzog , p. 109. Ibid. On Bosch's help with Berger's pension.
personal data
SURNAME Berger, thank God
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berger, Gottlob Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Obergruppenführer and head of the SS main office, politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Gerstetten
DATE OF DEATH 5th January 1975
Place of death Stuttgart